AZ:Police Helicopter and Patrol Cars Dispatched for Man Photographing Courthouse(Open Carry)

photographyisnotacrime.com ^ | 6 August, 2013 | Carlos Miller

[marktwain]

With a .45 caliber legally strapped to his side, Jordan McManus decided to photograph the federal courthouse in Phoenix last night, realizing he would probably draw attention from police, especially after reading about Raymond Michael’s experience last May.

But he was still a little surprised when a police helicopter hovered over him with a spotlight as two patrol cars pulled up next to him and another two cops approached him on foot.

They immediately tried to disarm him, but he refused to let them do it as it is legal to open carry in Arizona.

Then they tried to pat him down, which didn’t make sense considering he was already showing a firearm. But he wouldn’t let them do that either.

“You’re carrying a firearm and taking a picture of a federal building,” the cop exclaimed, trying to justify the pat down.

Then they demanded to know who he was, but didn’t get anywhere with that either.

Here is a portion of the exchange:

“Am I being detained right now?” McManus asks.

“Absolutely you are, yes,” the cop responds.

“You have reasonable suspicion that I committed a crime, right?

“Well, I’m concerned …”

“You’re concerned. Are you detaining me?”

“I am,” he says weakly.

“Under the suspicion that I committed what crime?”

“I don’t know yet. You’re not giving us any information.”

And there you have the reason why police are always demanding to see people’s identification even though the people are not breaking the law. It gives them a hope that if they run your name through their system, they will find a bench warrant and have an excuse to arrest you.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The way these rights get treated can depend on how you treat their guardians.

[JRandomFreeper]

Police do NOT guard our rights. We guard our rights. And our rights should be treated in accordance with the Constitution and the laws.

/johnny

[Standing Wolf]

Well, yeah, but we’re still not a police state, because no children’s dogs got shot.

[B4Ranch]

>>Someone locally needs to try and demand the city/county justify this expensive use of a helicopter.<<

The Controllers who work inside the building demand protection and they were providing it.

[SkyDancer]

Did he have a dog? Was it shot?

[JRandomFreeper]

If more Americans insisted on their rights, this would be a freer country.

But it makes some people nervous, and even some freepers think that someone exersizing their rights in a lawful manner is somehow wrong.

/johnny

[GeronL]

People take pictures of court houses and capitol buildings all the time, nothing wrong with it- they paid for them.

[GeronL]

lol

“....This is not the bunker you are paying for...”

[Darksheare]

Yes, let’s all curl up on the ground, cover our heads and hope our “political masters” don’t beat us too hard for daring to believe we have such petty things as rights.

[marktwain]

“If you protect the nervous nellies enough, you get the fiasco that happened in NY when the cops were called out because a single .22LR round was found in the street. “

I think that was York, England, but you were pretty close:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/8805022.Fossgate_bullet_find_mystery/

[ponygirl]

I watched the whole video to the end and the guy was not doing anything wrong, which the cops had to admit at the end and let him walk away unmolested. It makes you think about how we are conditioned to comply with this kind of crap just to prove that you're not breaking the law.

When I was in college, I was once pulled over by a cop and subjected to the most ridiculously invasive questioning. I guess he was looking for drunk drivers, and I was just returning from a study session at a coffee shop with a classmate. It was late, but I knew I had not been drinking anything but coffee and was not speeding. The guy wanted to know where I had been, who I had been with, what I had been doing, where was I headed. I answered his questions until I finally got pissed off. "I am not doing anything wrong, why are you detaining me?" "I'm not detaining you. Have a nice night." It was CREEPY, yet I realized later...I'm a good girl, and I answered his questions because I'm a good girl, when I had every right NOT to.

[Valpal1]

"Do you have a birthday?" Yeah sure. "Well what is it?" April 21st. "What year?" Every year. That's gotta burn. LOL. I think he did a pretty good job of exercising.

[man_in_tx]

I think that — related to this story — is an elephant in the room: Namely, Profiling, or, rather, perhaps, the lack thereof.

Since police are allegedly not allowed to profile, they are trained to do as the TSA does in airports — to treat us all as criminals by default.

If I were a cop, and if profiling were allowed, I would be much more concerned if the individual taking the photos appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin, as opposed to this cracker, er, Caucasian.

That said, what he did was legal.

Does anyone in here really get that people in AZ really do walk around with guns on their hips, if they so choose? I have been there and seen it — and, yes, it is a bit of a shock to see the first time one encounters it. (Problem is, clearly not ENOUGH people exercise this right in AZ or in other states where open carry is permitted.)

As far as I know there is not legal prohibition in AZ for carrying a camera and photographing public buildings while simultaneously legally carrying openly on your hip.

Also, do people in here get that, while the Sheriff of Maricopa County (Joe Arpaio) is a true conservative, the mayor, and city government apparatus in Phoenix is L-I-B-E-R-A-L? That flavors their approach to how they do business, I suspect!

[JRandomFreeper]

That may have been it. I still think there was an incndent in NY, too.

/johnny

[dragnet2]

I give the police pretty good marks for no violence

Video has a tenancy to subdue/restrain agents of the government.

[marktwain]

Here is another from England. This one is a particularly breathless story from the Guardian (far left paper):

Bullet found in doorway

“The bullet, of Swiss origin, was still in its brass casing, complete with enough gunpowder for it to fire itself.”

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/1013959.bullet_found_in_doorway/

[matt04]

DHS has trained many to believe that taking a picture of a buildings some sort of act leading to terrorism or some other BS. In reality, I bet you could get more detail from Google Earth.

[stinkerpot65]

I agree. I’m all for gun rights, but this guy is just a jerk.

[JRandomFreeper]

Kryptonite Kamera. ;)

/johnny

[marktwain]

"Do you have a birthday?" Yeah sure. "Well what is it?" April 21st. "What year?" Every year. That's gotta burn. LOL. I think he did a pretty good job of exercising. Sad to say, he came perilously close to being arrested, charged, and convicted. If it had been a federal officer they could have done it and made it stick. He said his name was John Doe. His name is not John Doe. It is a federal felony to lie to a federal officer. Ayn Rand's predictions of laws being made to be broken are now reality.